Been reading posts on all the different types of tuners both here and on other forums (Handhelds vs Custom) and at this point I'm somewhat confused . W4M seems to give the best for the money but I've read about issues with pinging and other misc problems as bad as the truck flat out not running. Any comments on this?
This is what I do know from personnal experiance:
I had a Hypertech on my old F150 really didn't seem worth the money so I sent it back and got a Superchips. That did make a noticable difference.

When I upgraded to a GMC Sierra I stuck with Superchips and it seemed to wake up the 5.3 quite nicely.

Trade in the GMC for an Avalanche with the 8.1L (I pull an 8000lb+ Travel Trailer). Once again a noticable diffrence from stock but since I got a PCM update at the dealer my Superchips no longer works ($75 to update it) so I'm toying with the idea of a custom tune.

My truck pretty much sits in the garage 5 days out of the week and is used only for the weekend tow of the travel trailer or when I decide to raise some hell. Since I have a 110 mile round trip commute I have a daily driver for work.
My updates to the truck are minimal and include a K&N FIPK, Magnaflow cat back exhaust, Thundervolt wires and NGK TR55IX Iridium plugs. The tune will be the last thing I put on the truck for performance in the foreseeable future.

I spoke with Jesse at W4M (Seems like a great guy) and he told me about a SCT XCalibrator 2 GM Custom Tuning Flash Device. Anyone heard of this? It supposedly will give you 3 custom tunes specifically for your truck. WEB site is : http://www.sctflash.com/product_gm_xc2.php.

I'm seriously thinking of the XCalibrator and would have him give me a 97 - 91 octane performance tune a tow performance tune for mid grade fuel and a flat out ***** to the wall premium grade tune.

I've spoken with both Nelson and Westins and both were just as nice but at $300 more for the tune my wallet is complaining. Are they worth the extra money? And given my situation (Towing and hellraising) can they meet my expectations with one tune?

I guess given all this and what I seem to want is it worth the expense of a custom tune or considering what I use the truck for should I stick with a Handheld.

Before I spend the money on the next tuner I wanted to get some advice from you guys since you all have been there done that and in some cases have gone beyond.

Thanks.

 

What if you had to bring the Avalanche in for warranty work? With a custom tune you would have to have a spare ECM to swap out before taking the truck to the stealer. I don't know how much they cost for gassers, but for my truck an ECM runs 400-500 bucks.
The ony thing i know about SCT is that they are top-notch on Ferds, I haven't heard anything about them on GM. I'm sure they're prolly just as good on GM. If they made a tuner for the Duramax I would definetly try it out. Westin and Nelson are top-notch too.
Good luck with your decision.

 

The SCT will store your stock setup so you can go back to it should you need warrenty work.